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Black Rebel Motorcycle Club’s Peter Hayes is no stranger to the turbulence synonymous with a long career in rock. The band’s 15-year run seems to have entertained an ever-shifting balance of the good and bad - from great reviews touring the world, to bored critics, substance abuse, and everything between. The band’s most recent hurdle came with the devastating loss of Michael Been, founder of The Call, father of bandmate Robert Levon, touring sound manager, and overall inspiration.

Kreayshawn is no stranger to controversy. The 22-year-old Oaklandite, who rocketed to fame with her 2011 viral smash "Gucci Gucci," has always had more detractors than fans. Whether she's being celebrated as a sub-genre pioneer, trashed as a phony, championed by girls around the world, or panned by the blogosphere, one things for certain: she's doing something worth talking about. 

New York-based trio Skaters are about to explode. With members from L.A. bands Dead Trees and Little Joy, and the guitarist of U.K. phenomenon The Paddingtons, the three chose to meet in the middle, geographically and stylistically, to record an EP in New York. They never left.

Legion straddles the line between dive bar and a club by the area’s standards. It pops off on the weekends, dance floor and all, but still works as a slightly depressing daytime joint. On Metropolitan towards Bushwick, it's one of the last bits of hipster before Williamsburg fades into projects and 99-cent stores, making it convenient to both areas.

The Midway is a hipster dive, meaning that though it's aesthetically intentional and void of death door alcoholics, it's still dark and cheap. The crowd generally falls somewhere between indie kids and yuppies dressed up as hipsters, which fits perfectly with its Grand and Roebling location, a strip where after downing a three-dollar Highlife you can go next door and have a hundred-dollar dinner. It's a great place to grab a drink before a meal when you don't necessarily have the funds to spring for a $15 cocktail. 

With black walls, cold air, and people you don't necessarily want to fuck with, Coal Yard Bar is aptly named. Despite being relatively new, it feels like it's been there forever and works as a great First Avenue get-away. No one's there you don't want to see and neither is anyone you do. It's almost worth a duck just to avoid the Indian Food Row hecklers across the street.

Grand Street's Second Chance Saloon falls on the nicer side of dive with a punky twist. Animal skulls, drink specials, and a general lack of pretension make it a great low-key hang out for any time of the day or night. Its vicinity to many Brooklyn venues deems it a known after-show hangout, so go grab a beer after sweating in a mosh pit. 

The Buswhick Country Club's got it down. Having just celebrated their 15th anniversary—a feat for a Grand Street bar—there's no better place to loll away the summer. Their mixture of fun, cheap drinks, and silly activities can't be beat. It's the perfect place to cool off with the "slush du jour," have a hot dog, and lose a game of mini golf.

Walking into Blarney Cove is like entering some sort of beer-soaked, ashy twilight where everyone is old and baseball is always on. While this description fits countless dives around America, for this to exist in the current state of the East Village is, to say the least, increasingly rare. 

Connolly's is the Rockaway beach dive. In a neighborhood where bars are rare and those you'd be brave enough to venture into are almost nonexistent, here's no better a time to be found. It's cheap, maybe haunted, and relatively friendly! Also you won't get stabbed, which is always a Rockaway bar selling point.